Six Species In One Day

Waking up early anticipating a back country bassin' session with Yakass member Tino, conditions looked perfect for a kayak fishing trip on the Brunswick river, NSW. Sunshine, still air rapidly warming. We had agreed on a gentlemen's hours start higher up the system and met on the river just after 8:30. I arrived to see Tino releasing a nice dark keeper flathead taken on a 3” bait fish profile.

We headed back up the river to seek out some honey holes that I hadn't visited in years that once held good Bass. On the way up we found some bank side surface activity worth looking at. Poddy mullet scattering everywhere in the shallows. There were a few hookups, not sure what, then Tino boated a nice solid flathead, and I a chunky mullet on a 3” plastic and 1/16^th oz jig head. I suspect there were some kg sized Trevally in the mix from the brick solid hookups that ran straight at the yak. Action went quiet so we headed up the system. On the quickly running out tide, I soon realised the river has silted up a lot since I was up here last. If we continued up the system we'd be walking home for sure, if we could get out at all. 

So we headed back down river, aiming for my favourite Jewie spot. We bumped into Alessio, the husband of a workmate of mine, who had a nice little soapie in his grip.

Further downstream I managed to troll up a keeper Jewie on the Rapala Shad Rap SR05. A spirited fight on 4lb string, putting a decent bend in the Nitro Ultrabream finesse.

We kept travelling down, things very quiet indeed until Tino scored a hit that launched skywards like a silver rocket. Tarpon! Not common here, and certainly not this time of year. Eventually boated and released, we headed back up river. I checked and moved the empty crab pot and put some more casts into a hole, taking two legal (released) Jewies, Tino taking one too. A humble bream also fell to his 3” watermelon pearl flavoured offering. A keeper mudcrab had found it's way into the pot so at least I didn't come home empty handed.

A cracker session with some healthy little fish. The river seems to be getting back to normal again after weeks and weeks of rain and wind. There are large piles of flotsam and jetsam everywhere, but the salty flavour has returned with a vengeance. Here's hoping this spring will be a good one. Six species in one day is a fair bet it will be.

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